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Yet, Santorum tried too hard, laughing derisively while his opponents made their points, rolling his eyes, shaking his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped at Romney at one point. These histrionics came across as desperate, an impression Santorum only reinforced after the debate when he complained that Romney and Paul seemed to be working in tandem.

“If ever there was an iconoclastic guy, it’s Ron Paul,” said top Romney adviser Stuart Stevens. “I mean, the notion that Ron Paul would do anything other than speak his own mind is whiny silliness.”

4. Santorum also sounded like a man who’s spent too much time in Washington. At several points in the debate, the national front-runner employed Capitol Hill jargon that must have caused Arizonans’ eyes to glaze over. He gave a lengthy dissertation about supporting “Title XX,” whatever that is, and practically filibustered while parrying Romney’s criticism over earmarks and big spending programs.

One of those appropriating bills contained money to support Planned Parenthood, Romney pointed out. In response, Santorum said that although he had “a personal moral objection to it, I voted for bills that included it.”

Santorum also apologized for voting for the No Child Left Behind law, on the grounds he was taking one for the team. The team in question, of course, was led by George W. Bush, a two-term Republican president. Santorum could have pointed out that Bush’s signature initiative was supported by 91 of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, making it one of the most bipartisan pieces of major domestic policy legislation in years.

Instead, his “politics is a team sport” defense opened the door for Ron Paul, who rejoined caustically that Santorum had illustrated precisely what was wrong with politics. It was an awkward moment for a candidate who, in response to John King’s request that the candidates provide a one-word description of themselves, had replied, “Courage.”

5. Bullying the media is still good Republican politics, if done skillfully. In this area, Gingrich, at age 68, still has his fastball. When King asked the candidates for a one-word description of themselves, the other three played along, offering flattering self-assessments. Not Gingrich. He smiled at King and slowly let out the word “cheerful” -- as if to say, “Screw you and your clever question, too.”

In a more serious vein, Gingrich responded sharply to a question CNN producers plucked from their online audience about whether the GOP candidates “believe in birth control.”

“I want to make two quick points, John,” said Gingrich. “The first is: There is a legitimate question about the power of the government to impose on religion activities which any religion opposes. That’s legitimate. But I just want to point out . . . not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide.”

Romney, by contrast, came across as clumsy at the end of the debate, when King asked the candidates about the biggest “misconception” voters might have of him. Almost as though one could see Romney’s mind racing through this minefield (“They think I don’t have any core values, but they’re wrong!”), the former Massachusetts governor launched into his familiar litany of grievances against the president.

When King interjected by reminding Romney the question that had been asked, the candidate replied, “You know, you get to ask the questions you want; I get to give the answers I want.” Here, he was borrowing directly from the Gingrich playbook, but Romney came across as someone who was blurting out his handlers’ stage directions. It was artless, and it generated a spoof by one wag on Twitter: “Moderator: ‘What’s your favorite color?’ Romney: ‘Hot dogs.’ ”

6. The candidates were confident in inverse proportion to their poll numbers and delegate counts. To the question of what might be voters’ biggest misconception about him, Paul went straight to the point. “I think the biggest misconception about me is that I can’t win,” he said, citing a recent poll in Iowa that shows him running more strongly in a head-to-head matchup with Obama than anyone else.